Telegram Ordered To Pay $625,000 To Lantah After Dropping GRAM Trademark Lawsuit
Reports claim that Telegram has been ordered to pay Lantah LLC the sum of $625,000 for dropping a case of an alleged infringement of the GRAM trademark.
This news is coming after Telegram dragged Lantah LLC, a small tech startup, to court in 2018 for using its GRAM crypto ticker. According to Telegram, Lantah allegedly infringed on its trademark and started an unfair competition with the messaging platform. Furthermore, Telegram also accused the tech startup of trying to launch its GRAM token.
Telegram to pay for Lantah’s legal costs
Responding to the court summon by Telegram, Lantah announced that it was launching a countersuit. The small tech startup owners claimed the GRAM trademark belonged to them as it has been registered under their name by the US Patent and Trademark Office in the late part of 2017.
Looking at the future consequences of pursuing its lawsuit, Telegram decided to drop its case voluntarily. To make matters worse, the messaging platform was forced to finally abandon its plan to launch the TON project after previous postponements. Rumors claimed that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) began to look into the company, a major reason why the TON was abandoned.
Telegram has now been ordered to pay Lantah the sum of $618,240 for the fees that the tech startup used to defend the case while it dragged through the years. Even though Lantah pushed for a payment of 1,030 hours at $900 per hour, the court ruled it out and eventually settled for a fee of $600 per hour, using the current market rate.
Notably, Telegram will still have to pay Lantah LLC an additional $6,737 in costs, the court ruled. Owing to the dismissal of the case without prejudice, Telegram nevertheless reserves the right to summon Lantah LLC to court in the future if they want to challenge this verdict.
Telegram abandoned the TON blockchain project after the SEC lawsuit
Telegram was already on its way to announce itself on the blockchain scene after it reportedly raised $1.7 billion in an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) conducted at a closed-door meeting in 2018. The messaging platform was planning to launch the TON blockchain, but trouble started after the US SEC began to look into its activities.
SEC claimed that the messaging platform was involved in selling securities that were not registered. The US SEC summoned Telegram to court, a move that delayed the distribution of the GRAM token to investors on multiple occasions.
After a prolonged legal battle that lasted years, Telegram was forced to shut down the launch of its TON blockchain. The messaging platform was also asked to pay a fine of $18 million after refunding the funds gathered from investors during the ICO.
To settle its case with SEC, Telegram said it would henceforth communicate its intention to issue any digital asset in the next three years.
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